Steve Jobs said he would spend his "last dying breath" fighting Google's Android mobile operating system because he viewed it as a "stolen product," according to an upcoming biography on the Apple co-founder.

The Associated Press excerpted Jobs' words after obtaining a copy of the book "Steve Jobs," written by noted biographer and former Time executive Walter Isaacson, ahead of its Oct. 24 release date. Though other biographies on the enigmatic entrepreneur have appeared in the past, the book is unique in that it is the only one to be officially authorized by Jobs himself.

According to the report, Isaacson writes about an "expletive-laced rant" that Jobs made to him about Android after the introduction of one particular HTC phone in January 2010.

"I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong," Jobs reportedly said. "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."

Though Apple has yet to take head-to-head legal action against Google, the company has thus far seen some success in its intellectual property fight against Android vendors. In July, the International Trade Commission issued an initial ruling that HTC had violated two of Apple's inventions. The iPhone maker has also won injunctions against Samsung's Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Germany and Australia.

The book also recounts a subsequent meeting between Jobs and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt at a café in Palo Alto, Calif. At the meeting, Jobs said he wasn't interested in settling with Google and its partners

"I don't want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won't want it. I've got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that's all I want," Jobs told Schmidt, according to the book.

That meeting may have taken place in March 2010, as Jobs and Schmidt were photographed meeting for coffee in Palo Alto on March 26, before reportedly agreeing to go somewhere "more private" to continue their conversation.

Schmidt had previously served on Apple's board of directors, but he resigned in 2009 after increased competition between the companies made his continued presence a potential conflict of interest.

The Huffington Post has also obtained a copy of the book and reports that Jobs' long-time rival Bill Gates found him "weirdly flawed as a human being," saying that he was fascinated by his tendency to be "either in the mode of saying you were shit or trying to seduce you."

For his part, Jobs viewed Gates as "basically unimaginative," noting that he "has never invented anythingHe just shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas."

The publication also recounted Jobs' first meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama. According to the book, Jobs told the president that he was "headed for a one-term presidency." Nevertheless, the two kept in touch, with Jobs even offering to help create Obama's ads for the 2012 campaign. The report noted, however, that Jobs had said Obama's focus on the reasons that things can't get done "infuriates" him.

Isaacson, who is due to appear in an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, has said that Jobs regretted delaying surgery for 9 months while he tried out alternative therapies. Jobs had initially balked at the treatment because he didn't want his body to be "violated in that way."

The book will also include details of the final months of Jobs' life, including specifics about his resignation as CEO of the company he helped found. Just weeks before his death, Jobs revealed in an interview with Isaacson that he had agreed to the authorized biography so that his children could know him better.

"I wasn't always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did," he said.

Jobs passed away on Oct. 5 due to complications from a long battle with cancer. Apple, widely considered as his greatest legacy, held a company-wide celebration for Jobs on Wednesday. A private memorial was also held for him on Sunday, with a number of notable businesspeople, politicians and celebrities in attendance.

There's a difference between taking an existing product, examining it for its strengths, and adapting them to your own product. This is what Jobs referred to. What Schmidt did was theft of trade secrets, something explicitly illegal in the US. He used his inside knowledge of Apple's in-development products to give his own company an advantage.

What's the difference between Apple innovating on the Xerox mouse and Google innovating on Apple's iPhone? More Patents filed now than then? Just sayin.....

Simple. Xerox was actually compensated for the technology with Apple stock way back before they went public...stock that now would be worth a zillion dollars. Xerox still thought that they had been duped and finally filed suit in the late 80s....only to have to motion thrown out of court.

Google management has access to Apple secrets for a time and ended up making an iPhone clone that first tiptoed around the concept of using Apple patents (like multitouch) before finally saying "just screw it, they probably won't sue us!"

I've always felt that Steve knew something that couldn't be proved in a courtroom. Maybe something between him and Rubin in the 90s or something between him and Schmidt later on.

Hard to say.

Probably Schmidt was aware of the iPhone project and Google made the decision to purchase Android based on that. The story Google tells about Larry Page purchasing Android without Schmidt's knowledge sounds like they're trying to cover their ass.

Simple. Xerox was actually compensated for the technology with Apple stock way back before they went public...stock that now would be worth a zillion dollars. Xerox still thought that they had been duped and finally filed suit in the late 80s....only to have to motion thrown out of court.

Google management has access to Apple secrets for a time and ended up making an iPhone clone that first tiptoed around the concept of using Apple patents (like multitouch) before finally saying "just screw it, they probably won't sue us!"

Ok thanks.
And the same with the Apple name itself vs The Beatle's Apple recording label too- right? Apple compensated them too I believe.

And Steve was right of course. Everyone else was chasing miniaturised QWERTY keyboards and/or resistive mono-touch displays until the iPhone came out.

Google bought android because they knew if Apple gained market share then they would lose their death grip on mobile search. Having sat on the board of directors throughout the original iPhone development Google was privy to specific information about Apples business model.

Its not as if this isnt a recurring theme in the technology industry. Where would we be if Steve didnt appropriate the GUI he saw demoed when he visited Xerox?

Its far too late to put the android genie back in the bottle. I am of the opinion that iOS will be better for having it around.

In other thermonuclear-war-related-news can we start petitioning introversion software to port Defcon to iOS already?

No, because Picasso was referring to trying something new that wouldn't make him a copy artist of Michelangelo.

He said he could draw a Michelangelo and no one would ever be impressed, but if he could steal an idea and bring it to life and create his own style then he would always be remembered.

There are plenty of great ideas out there, just waiting to be taken and brought to reality.

Right now, they're just ideas.

Apple has a ton of ideas and they bring them to life. Google stealing these ideas implies shamelessly knowing Apple is researching and patenting these ideas and if Google can bring it to market first people will be none the wiser.

Therefore, Jobs vowed to become even more secretive, while bringing the full weight of that war chest to bare on the future of computing.

Its not as if this isnt a recurring theme in the technology industry. Where would we be if Steve didnt appropriate the GUI he saw demoed when he visited Xerox?

Slightly different. If I recall, Xerox willfully shared their research with Apple in exchange for stock, likely because they figured Apple could market it better. But you're right in that it does happen, as Apple invited Microsoft in during development of the Macintosh (or was it Lisa?) based on Xerox's research, so they could have Office ready, but then went and used what they learned to make Windows.

Probably Schmidt was aware of the iPhone project and Google made the decision to purchase Android based on that. The story Google tells about Larry Page purchasing Android without Schmidt's knowledge sounds like they're trying to cover their ass.

That's the exact legal advise given for Page to do. If they admitted to being informed they would be screwed.

No, because Picasso was referring to trying something new that wouldn't make him a copy artist of Michelangelo.

He said he could draw a Michelangelo and no one would ever be impressed, but if he could steal an idea and bring it to life and create his own style then he would always be remembered.

There are plenty of great ideas out there, just waiting to be taken and brought to reality.

Right now, they're just ideas.

Apple has a ton of ideas and they bring them to life. Google stealing these ideas implies shamelessly knowing Apple is researching and patenting these ideas and if Google can bring it to market first people will be none the wiser.

Therefore, Jobs vowed to become even more secretive, while bringing the full weight of that war chest to bare on the future of computing.

Well Andy Warhol stole left and right and is considered the modern artist genius.
Campbell's tomato soup anyone?

No, because Picasso was referring to trying something new that wouldn't make him a copy artist of Michelangelo.

He said he could draw a Michelangelo and no one would ever be impressed, but if he could steal an idea and bring it to life and create his own style then he would always be remembered.

There are plenty of great ideas out there, just waiting to be taken and brought to reality.

Right now, they're just ideas.

Apple has a ton of ideas and they bring them to life. Google stealing these ideas implies shamelessly knowing Apple is researching and patenting these ideas and if Google can bring it to market first people will be none the wiser.

Therefore, Jobs vowed to become even more secretive, while bringing the full weight of that war chest to bare on the future of computing.

I always thought that quote should be attributed to TS Eliot, from “Philip Massinger,” The Sacred Wood.

"One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority of a poet] is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest."Source

Better than my Bose, better than my Skullcandy's, listening to Mozart through my LeBron James limited edition PowerBeats by Dre is almost as good as my Sennheisers.